


The More Things Change

by talibusorabat (hermitcave)



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: Cross-Generational Friendship, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-07
Updated: 2012-08-07
Packaged: 2017-11-11 14:58:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/pseuds/talibusorabat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been awhile since they've seen each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The More Things Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hydrangea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrangea/gifts).



_One of these days_ , Takigawa thought to himself as he stepped out of the elevator, _Naru ought to get a bigger office_.

The moonlighting monk smiled and waved to Eri-chan, who scrunched up by the water cooler, analyzing the data gathered from the latest investigations. He carefully stepped around the large map that Tsuyoshi-kun had spread on the floor, the better to see and mark geographic patterns. Shibuya Psychic Research had grown a great deal in the past 10 years, but Naru was a creature of habit. Or a cheapskate -- Takigawa wasn't really sure which.

"Yo, Ayako!" The shrine maiden looked up from her seat on Naru's desk. "Long time no see. You've gotten older." He yelped as she responded with a swift kick the shins.

"I think you meant to say _You haven't aged a day_ ," she sniffed.

"You would tell a monk to lie?"

John waved his arms. "Come on, guys! Let's all get along." And because he liked the little priest (and he didn't want  more bruises on his shins), Takigawa backed off.

"You've got all the old team here, pretty much," he said. "Are we having a party or something?"

"There's a case." The young man glanced up briefly from his paperwork, seeming disinterested. "Where's Mai?"

"She has work today, doesn't she?" Ayako said.

"That's right," Takigawa said. "She's a working woman now, Naru-chan. No longer at your beck and call."

Naru didn't react, but Takigawa held out hope.

Ayako leaned back and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I haven't seen where she works yet," she said. "I keep meaning to visit, but I never find the time."

"We could go now," John suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Takigawa said, over Naru's quiet assertion that they had a case. "Let's go!"

\--------------

Mai gently stroked the wolf cub's nose. "There there," she murmured. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" She scratched the baby animal behind his left ear, and even though he was still cross with her, his tail slowly began to wag.

"Mai-chan!"

The wolf cub bolted away, knocking Mai into the mud. _There goes another uniform._

Her scowl immediately melted away when she saw her friends waving to her from outside the wolf enclosure. "Bou-san! Ayako-san!" And then, not believing her own eyes -- "Naru!"

The unacknowledged Masako tittered behind her sleeve. "This new look suits you." Mai made a face at her, more out of habit than anything else.

"Working hard, eh, Mai-chan?" Takigawa grinned. Ayako didn't look nearly as pleased.

"I thought you were promoted!" she protested. "Why are you still working in the mud?"

"I like it," Mai said.

"Of course she does." Naru leaned casually on the railing, a picture of bored disinterest. "She's with her own kind now."

A few years ago, that comment would have gotten under her skin, but Mai was old enough now to just roll her eyes.

"I get to work more closely with the animals now," she said. "Evidently I'm really good at calming them when they're upset. They're even letting me help figure out what enclosures to put them in!"

"Your animal instinct pays off," Takigawa said, and Mai laughed.

"Something like that," she agreed. "Give me a sec and I'll be right out."

\--------------

"She's grown up quite a bit, hasn't she?" Ayako commented, watching the younger woman scramble out of sight.

"She's definitely not a dreamy young teenager anymore." Takigawa elbowed Naru gently. "Better make your move fast, Naru-chan, before she gets over you completely."

The look Naru gave him would have chilled a wiser man, but 10 years had done little to change the impish monk.

"She might have already." Or herself, for that matter. Naru's cold look only made her want to laugh. "She could have a boyfriend already. I've seen some very attractive young men around here…"

"Perhaps they should put you in a cage with the cougars," Naru remarked mildly. Takigawa, that traitor, doubled over laughing.

"What's so funny?" Mai came around the corner, the worst of the mud wiped from her clothes. 

_Time for revenge!_ Ayako drew herself up. "Naru wanted to --" 

The pure evil in his eyes choked the words in her throat. "We have a case," he said to Mai, as though he wasn't the living personification of death that Ayako had just seen.

Mai looked uncertain. "I do have the next few days off," she said. "But I was kinda hoping to really take a break…"

"Oh come on!" Takigawa said. "We haven't worked together in ages! And this will be at a resort! Right, Naru?"

"No." Ayako giggled a little at the disappointment on Takigawa's face. "It's a factory in Wakana."

"You're going to make us travel all that way for a _factory?_ " Takigawa said. "Count me out!"

"But you just said it's been awhile since we worked together," John said. "It might be fun."

" _Fun_ is a benign spirit in a luxury mountain resort," Takigawa said. Ayako didn't say anything, but she was inclined to agree.

"If you aren't interested, you don't have to come," Naru said. "Your help isn't necessary."

"You really know how to win people over, don't you, Naru-chan?" Ayako remarked.

Mai laughed. "It sounds interesting," she said. "And I've never seen Wakana before. Can we leave after I get off from work?"

Naru nodded, and Takigawa sighed loudly.

"Well, if Mai-chan's going, I guess I'll come along too," he said.

"You'll have to pay for your own ticket," Naru told him. 

"Why you --!!!"

\--------------

They hung around the zoo until Mai's shift was over, nobody really wanting to part after so long. They walked Mai to her bus stop, Lin and Naru lagging a little behind. Lin was watching Naru, while Naru watched Mai.

She hadn't changed that much, really. At 26, she was more laid back than her 16 year old self, but that was superficial. Her sense of humor, warm heart, and effortless ability to connect with other people was still the same. He could admit to himself now that he envied her that, just a little. A part of him wondered if he would ever change.


End file.
